wrote about come to our newsroom i am i do see now way tonight reports of u.s. mercenaries in ukraine are mounting look at the possibility of for profit contractors on the ground but syria is gearing up for presidential elections reason for optimism not really as the u.n. peace envoy gives out on the war torn country and passport control in russia could get out of hand a draft law is brewing that might see those who don't declare dual citizenship criminal your in the now. four hundred u.s.

mercenaries working in eastern ukraine hired by can have to suppress any opposition to their makeshift government the sec is ation comes from a german newspaper but how possible is it that foreign helping hands are actively working on the ground do you believe that there are american mercenaries operating right now in ukraine send the message through and best of the. two to respond to those assertions you know you don't have if you get sickly i would be very very strong suspicions the obvious might be true a hunch perhaps but built phone tag says for profit mercenaries are participating in the effort to eliminate anti activists inside valance and possibly other areas in the denounce creech and it's almost impossible to verify these claims but there have been plenty of hence check this out. you as a citizen again not verified this is from military dot com some of my team thought

they heard a hint of an accent but i'm a native speaker and it sounded pretty american to me let's hear it again listen carefully. you can decide for yourself keep in mind though these are the first accusations of foreigners working in ukraine in march there were reports of the presence of greystone mercenaries and eastern ukraine this video is of identified troops uniform doesn't look ukrainian russian for that matter is not proof of course but it does raise questions greystone is a revamped sold blackwater well actually blackwater first became z. services after scandals connected to their work in iraq and afghanistan and then became a cademy which gravestone is now officially a branch of all one in the same if you ask me but let's ask jack rice he's

a former cia officer and joins us live in the now they serving with us how likely do you think it is that mercenaries are in fact working on the ground in ukraine is that a crazy allegation. it's not completely crazy i mean the real problem that we have is it's always difficult to verify this but we do have to realize you have a much different world than we've seen even in the last fifteen years there are a lot of very very experienced former military types from around the world who are working in iraq and afghanistan yemen and elsewhere and those men frequently almost all men are now looking for jobs and there are companies out there around the world who are trying to hide i threw my praises pretty well i want to take a look at what academy has said officially they're denying the allegations they say that it's irresponsible blogger is an online reporters they're posting rumors that employees are president ukraine they're denying them saying that there are

unfounded statements and that it's nothing more than sensation and efforts to create hysteria how do you react to that well i do think that that could be a tool that's being used and obviously their hope that least some sides were trying to increase the tensions and this now allegation would certainly do that but again i think we have to be very clear here that there have been other situations in the past where the ability to bring in very quickly guys we're really really good at this have a lot of experience at this it can literally drop on the ground in a matter of hours is something that other countries have used in the past in fact erik prince the founder of blackwater he said that mercenaries are used because they're more of a fact of then the u.s. army do you think that's true i think they're more effective in the senate in the sense that they can move more quickly and it's also one of those things that's deniable for the u.s. government i mean one of the things that i saw directly when i was working in iraq was i was seen mercenaries on the ground i was seeing essentially guns for hire on

the ground i've seen the very same thing in africa too this is something that's become very common it's become easy to do and relatively speaking it's cheap if you contemplate the ability to have very high end special forces. with a ton of experience were at your disposal and nobody else's let's face it that has a lot of attractive qualities if you want that sort of the where does this fall in terms of international law and how can our gay since like this be proved in the first place see that's that's really the big question in every sense of the word again i recall being out in baghdad with a group of these guys and when us centrally have no limitation you essentially have nobody who is out there telling what you can and can't do it gives you a flexibility and you did not get ability that the u.s. government ukrainian government the russian government simply does not have you have quote unquote independence but the problem is is there really independence how

much transparency do you do you have these are private companies can't they do whatever they want that's part of the problem what about accountability who do these contractors have to answer to the home they see again that's part of this question of the transparency issue if accountability is flowing only going to the guy who's writing the check that means they have the ability to do just about anything they want and contemplate they are better armed better experienced more capable foreign nationals who could come in and go out who's going to oversee do you think it's going to be the local military you think it's be going to be the local constabulary it's going to be the police i mean who is going to do this and yet in many ways this is what a lot of at least in the west and the east to frankly have continued to do and ramp up in doing because of all of those very same reasons you get deniability you can do all sorts of things and you don't actually have to justify it because you can say i don't know what you're talking about they might not be able to answer this

but i've got to ask how much are these guys make and how much does a private contractor make what it's a great question and i don't let me give you just a hint maybe because you never did exactly know i recall sitting in a tent with three other guys in western baghdad. years ago and having them talk to me about going to work for them i'm a former cia case officer a lot of experience on that side i have a lot of experience as a journalist all the world and a lot of experience working in front of the camera they wanted a guy to do both and all of those things and let's just say it was a strong sixty years. wow thanks for being in the now jack rice criminal defense attorney and former cia officer. we're going to move on to a story we're covering yesterday about joe biden and his son working in ukraine he got a deal at for one of the country's largest private natural gas companies coincidence

i think not just weeks after his father visited the country hunter biden was appointed to the board of barista holdings here's a report now with more on the biden family's personal ties with ukraine. since the start of the crisis in ukraine washington has provided on wavering moral and financial support to anti-government protesters particularly those who spearheaded the uprising over the past months he has received special visits from the cia director the secretary of state his assistant senators and most recently u.s. vice president joe biden who recently crossed the atlantic to assure your craniums that america's involvement in their crisis is sincere we go to the stage and we do all the in the preview in time democracy can be delivered to the ukrainian people it is not. a foreign policy judgment is a personal issue motional commitment as well by millions of americans.

and as you attempt to pursue energy security well as it turns out joe biden's youngest son will be conveniently playing on a major role in ukraine's pursuit of energy independence hunter bided has been appointed head of legal affairs at the response holdings ukraine's largest private gas producer the us vice president's son will also join the company's board of directors consulting on matters related to international expansion and policies surrounding the country's economy critics say this is typical washington politics exploiting a foreign crisis for personal gain now of course when the united states gets involved as most every other country on earth if they get involved in some foreign adventures they try to portrayed in the most altruistic and platonic. sashing possible. however it's very difficult to disentangle the business interests from

national interests vice president biden has repeatedly accused moscow of meddling in ukraine's affairs also insisting that america will help reduce its dependency on russia's energy mr. biden just didn't mention that his own son and the u.s. would be benefited in the interim reporting from new york arena for nial r.t. . how has the u.s. state department reacted to the blight bidens well it's none of the government's business i'm wondering if the state department has any concerns or any thoughts about the vice president's son joining the board of directors of this ukrainian gas . gas company know he's a private citizen do you consider that the russian oligarchs who control or the training oligarchs who control these. though they're all private citizens as well i certainly wouldn't put them in the snow and i'm not suggesting that it should be in

the same category but i'm wondering if there are concerns in this building about the perception of about how the russians and or the ukrainians we perceive the involvement of the son of the vice president united states especially given the situation no there are not biden son is not the only one with a new job one of the vice president's powers has one two seven archer scored a position at the same company in ukraine just a day after biden's visit to care of something tells me more biden bugs could be popping up on business boards across ukraine. coming out british troops might have to answer to the i.c.c. who are looking into torture in iraq stay in the now.

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welcome back here in the now with me and you sonali it's been going on for more than three years and although international focus has shifted to ukraine the syrian

war is still there it still continues to take lives i'm sure if it's a sign of helplessness or just plain giving up i get another special envoy to syria lakhdar brahimi has resigned the u.n. says that's because all of us meaning the whole world failed to help the syrians. i mean live in the now is mark seibel chief correspondent at mcclatchy covering syria and the wider middle east thanks for being with us the daily beast reports that john kerry in a private meeting with syrian rebels said that we meaning the u.s. and its allies i believe at least wasted a year and didn't topple president one a waste of time he said what do you make of that. well i don't know if he really said that he might have said that certainly there is a feeling in the united states that a lot of time went by in which the u.s.

if it was going to do something militarily didn't do anything militarily whether that was a waste of time or just a policy debate within the administration i can't really say i want to talk about the rebels role they've cut off water supplies to most of parts of the city of aleppo by targeting plumbing stations women and children we're seeing pictures of them drinking water from potholes on the street from contaminated wells clearly the humanitarian situation is dire where is this heading. well you know the there is no doubt that the humanitarian situation in syria is is horrendous there are nine million people at least who have been forced from their homes there are several areas where there are no public services no food supplies both. areas that the government's cut off and areas that the rebels have cut off clearly there are. billions of dollars in damages. there's no

real relief that is getting to it at least three million of the people who are homeless in syria and so it's a it's a dire situation i don't know how that resolves itself in that the u.n. has taken action at the security council asking or demanding really that both sides make it possible to relieve or provide food aid to to civilians trapped in in the combat but that really hasn't worked out very well you've had a few local agreements. outside that structure but there's an awful lot of fighting that goes on that prevents food aid from arriving yarmulke. the palestinian refugee camp it's really a neighborhood of. damascus you know every day the u.n. attempts to provide food there to think eighteen thousand people who are trapped

every day that that food effort is is stopped prematurely because there is new fighting in the area so you know as long as that's going on i think civilians are going to be hard pressed to to find you know a place where they can live their lives syria of course is holding presidential elections next month is that even possible given the civil war ongoing and the humanitarian crisis that we're seeing. well i think it will be one of those places where you are one of those events where you have elections in those parts of the country where you can hold elections damascus homes hama most of the large cities of syria will be able to have some kind of an election the countryside certainly the eastern syria where the islamic state of iraq and syria is in control much of northern syria. aleppo provinces i don't think they'll be much voting in those

areas so it's it's. it will be a presidential vote. in those parts of areas where the government is in control and in those parts of syria which is a large part of syria where the government isn't controlling i assume they won't be voting and eyes in the international community is not going to be accepting the results of this election what do you think well you know i think we know the results of the election. i think president assad will will win the election. the international community of by that you mean you know the united states the european union. those people obviously they're not going to it except the election because they believe assad is an illegitimate leader. as to whether other parts of the world are with russia and china and those countries accept the results of the election i guess we'll have to wait and see but. i think it doesn't really

mean anything in terms of the of the conflict in syria whether assad is reelected or not assad has made clear he's he has no intention of stepping down. and certainly there are people who say he ought to. just as many people say it's it's really not the world's business it's something syrians will have to decide for themselves. just finally france is looking into whether star used chemical weapons fourteen times against his own people meanwhile assad and his government claim that chemical weapons disarmament is in full swing well both might be true. the o.p.c. wu which is the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons is investigating the reports that chlorine gas was among the components of some of

these barrel bombs that have been dropped on on villages around syria. and you know it's really not part of the disarmament process syria was not required to declare chlorine gas and oil chlorine gas is certainly prohibited as a weapon of war it is not normally something that it's you try to read a country of because it's in cleaning products and you know pool doesn't that mean that they're out of there at all carney using these kind of chemical weapons of course they could be you know and i and and that's the of course the allegation from the syrian government you know i think there's there's there's evidence there i think the u.s. position on this has been interesting the o.p.c. debbi is in best a gating let's let them investigate and then we'll know what the truth is mark seibel chief correspondent at mcclatchy covering syria and the middle east thanks

so much for being in the now thank you. iraqis suffered under saddam hussein's dictatorship that he has a brutality oppression and theah the death and torture accounts the barbaric prisons says he was prepared to use chemical weapons on his own people. and the british decided to join the u.s. led war against the tyrant to help iraqis out. the. the. the. effort it's was taken at the dawn of the iraq war all of it happened at a secret prison which is now being dumped as the u.k.'s. well finally the

international criminal court says it's willing to investigate war crime accusations against british troops and will look into around sixty cases of murder and almost two hundred cases of mistreatment of iraqis by the invaders we caught up with a man who saw this with his own eyes well i mean i was the first to stumble upon this abuse of prisoners. as early as march in two thousand and three of the war was just days old and i went into the war camp to deal with another issue and looked into an interrogation facility where i saw approximately forty prisoners and in stress positions and use the use of generators which in my view was being used to literally you're a prisoner you just freshly captured and you're about to be interrogated and someone's got a generator running outside the interrogation facility and you've got a hold on your head you probably think it's being used to muffle the sound of

someone being and to get it whatever's going on in the interrogation facility that's on a colonel nicholas mercer was then the british military says most senior lawyer in the country but his call for justice has fallen on deaf ears. it's clear the geneva conventions apply because we were in an international conflict. of the third geneva convention so there is violence and intimidation and intimidation it was clear that this was an intimidation against prisoners so it was impression i got of it it was denied that everything was denied it was said that it was it was thought of u.k. doctrine when i complained that it breached the geneva conventions and i was told i'd go to laurel over pair to double check if you have double citizenship here in russia here's what some russian lawmakers are proposing if you live in russia and have two passports russia and say american you will have to inform the authorities of the american one if you don't do this automatically means that you

are hiding your second passport and that it will be illegal and you either have to pay almost six thousand dollars fine or do four hundred hours of community service even children will fall into the category of violators which is insane if you ask me my two year old son could become a criminal. joining us in the now as do my deputy i made new of thank you for being with us what's wrong with having to citizenship then isn't it my business per se as long as laws are followed. according to the constitution. people of russia have the right to dual citizenship. acceptably for public servants just recently some restrictions were introduced for governmental officials we would agree that for state duma deputies government officials and security officers judges and the. prosecution service.

with these category of people probably. should be introduced but we are against extending these to ordinary people and even children that baby can become a criminal at the morgue and then for the rest of his life. they will have this team. criminal offense a criminal record don't you think it's a little bit paranoid but it's that it was just one deputy who sponsored this bill whereas we have a special comedian that specializes in such matters. and i think serious matters like this should go through public discussion this serious discussions a lot of consultation situ can be just one deputy proposing such a bill and then a new law is passed that will affect millions of people thank you so much to my

deputy my leg with us in the now. that does it for me tonight stay in touch with us online you can write me at a now or t. and remember it's now or never. personally data are trusted the cloud service. that ensures protecting your privacy. could be a race to randomly get stolen. or become a target of the n.s.a. . what if unclouded sky is right above the clouds on our t.v. . we think of why we think there are no.

moral sand beaches. coconut palms gently swaying in the ocean breeze. in fact. white has a deep dark little secret a secret the u.s. government would like you to know. through all the way. through ball i did do we have succeeded in taking all we know the new. roof. i know c.n.n. the m s n b c fox news have taken some not slightly but the fact is i admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate. that was funny but it's closer to the truth and might

think. looks goods because one whole attention in the mainstream media works side by side the joke is actually on you look. at our team news we have a different approach to the good because the news of the world just is not this funny i'm not like dammit i'm not. a. risk you've got to stick to the jokes will handle the stuff that i've got. the news today and signs of more to progress to a peace to. anybody. else those rights where the great excuse to leave the arcade and say calls of the smallest. souls.

international news and call in july for most valuable shall say international was me you know tshabalala hello and welcome to the program. police and the ukrainian countess while forcing anti government to riotous to abandon that barricades says violence in central kiev rolls into its fourth day running and. is that for us. guys at the newseum want me to find something new today. some new details and

something more interesting in the last couple of days is like. i don't think i can invent anything you i mean if i see something it's like a groan all day with ukraine most of the tie so that once the thing starts it's been pretty much the same all the time and it's getting very cold and the snow was just. ranting the third day. god knows how many more days will have. easy chairs that will be entering a thirty. thirty third day in a month from the. well. there's nothing you're. the only thing new is that it's now quieter. you can actually hear ourselves talking there's no this metal clanging thing anymore. a lot because. they're setting up another barricade you see.

it may suggest that. they're here to stay for some time or they may suggest that the police may actually. make another attempt to disperse them soon but this really looks like another barricade look the burned carcasses of the cars so we might be here for a long spell that. we have the national to see. if i don't. know if i should. love to play live. that. may have come down in terms of the noise at the governmental court in kiev but it's still far from settled only a few meters are separating the police lines and the line of the protesters of the rioters and still there sometimes exchanging project hours at each other over the

night we saw an attempt by the police to push the protesters off this particular place here the failed attempt when the protesters started charging with a writer started charging at the police the police had to withdraw and ever since then it's been like that the standoff continues on here it looks like yet another barricade with what remains of the police cars which were burned here on sunday night basically separating the line of the rioters and the police during the night we also saw something to be peculiar for ukraine cases of vigilantism where in the civil militia. groups basically organized a hundred safari for what they called pro-government provocateurs they took them to . a building which they described as the revolutionary headquarters organize something of a vigilante trial took him out into the square and them to apologize for supporting the government for doing what they did and this situation still tens hundreds of injured are still in hospitals including more than one hundred policemen which is something unprecedented not only for ukraine but for many other countries in the

world we're also hearing on the ground here that the authorities may consider implementing a state of emergency on thursday if things go on the same way as they do right now is simply monitoring how things unravel in kiev but as again as i said the tension is still far from dying down there certainly following all the developments in kiev will bring you the latest updates as we get them. we cover that basically what we did was filming. walk and talk with the new barricades i would say this is like something sensational when you were compared to what we did yesterday in the day before yesterday it's relatively new. because the day before yesterday and yes. we couldn't get as close as we did now. simply because of all the project us lying around in the police actually responding with with firearms or with no firearms of course with non-lethal weapons.

this is. lots of work has been done we're getting. lots of people to do direct talks between so we know and the rebels it looks like that it may be a long one tonight because we don't really know when they're going to hold the final conference and what's going to happen what to expect the rebels are say to me pull out of the top city moment so for us that would be. breaking news probably it's a major story. shows how. nervous nerve wracking the negotiations are it was probably either. a nervous negotiator or a nervous correspondent there on the line. well you know you never know when nature what what's going on here. let's hope i don't slip on a thing like that and break my neck that would be. ironic if i just the first real

steps for. looks like the old school when they were think. a lot of us. oh right now we don't know what's going on because there are these rumors that the talks have been postponed the syrian opposition is out. because they don't know yet if they are then this whole meeting is just like screwed. my producers just called me and said i want to go outside. so there's going to be some sort of flaw since representative is going to be subs. at the wife positions always go there check it out because this really could be a way. that we could teach them if they. they walk out of the whole thing that i don't know what that means.

having to russia today. for thirty days which is so exciting i can't wait. seven weeks back any fear for mine and rush to help robert i put together three here. months. passed a wedding last summer. that this man just. relieved that. it's finally culminated in the next hour and three weeks i think. that. this is new for me to be sent to. a he's the only person who can do this it's it's really trying to link up. it's actually bringing out groceries to get at lest i think i'm just dying where i can't get

a better i can't wait to spring for chars. bourbon to cut but i'd wallow bars. mechanic oatmeal just things that i lack that make me feel make me feel american have been that american food for traffic lights now. reading i'm ok on here take it i would kill for and foremost to spare her dad think these are not chase her and stop what they are sick they face cheeseburger in english and in the russian writing if i'm so sorry that so i mean it goes loving way of saying i'm going to offend people i don't know what the hell that is but it's not cheap. and it just made a pair of as much. school

children as was a specialist at least he's going to use them in the movie discos. but a little discussion of the suitable suppose goes to show in addition to what we've done the bulldozed what was that any more but the more. chase it is the feel they should put it in you know the mood of the boat it doesn't it would still not been using unmoved mover just because you know a good bunch of us in new york city was about to exclude a little more of the bush though before the club would put their ideas move oh yeah it was it still shows for the little while shouting at the boys you can use well no but you. would know what a loser like you would say when you feel like it's the truth so i do space for my dog like you suppose it's a speech that was a joke with the kids last. most movies to stop motion to go would go to those who

would have audience. oh. ok so. let's go to the interview everybody spouting king here right now because they don't know what's happening other than the most asians argentina are on they're not continuing. to be part of the opposition of the left apparently there was this formal meeting that they had to greet each other and sit at the same table but the opposition refused so that didn't happen and we're going to be now we don't know what the schedule for today what to expect that's the situation right now. why don't i mean for god's sake why don't we see and find all be on some distributed why doesn't he just cool the opposition not step down and see where the is why do you push it in the u.k. hospice that could be doing to step down he would step down well in the u.k. we don't drop in moments of may to see he killed people two years ago in the

streets of a minute you know i saw the new t.v. they didn't show people in. prison. people in syria president said and you'll positional this is going to actually. knowing you're going to be waiting for the final press conference in the evening everybody is just being chaotic and you think these people. no one knowing the understands like what's happening journalists all like stampede stuff started running over not understanding anything that's happening. here. i never had sex with the earthquake there's no lens let's go live.

to lead lead lives. a little. did you know the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy trip albus. in

fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and across several we've been a hydrogen client handful of trans national corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers one school class i'm tom hartman and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem try rational debate in a real discussion critical issues facing america to find ready to join the movement then welcome to the big picture. in the wake of referenda demanding self-determination for ukraine as a sovereign state continues down the path of disintegration the western backed regime in kiev is adamant it will not talk to so-called terrorists meanwhile protesters in the east and south of ukraine are voting with their feet.

among the people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist so it's time to blow the whistle and start a revolution before we're all slaves to the corrupt and the general the corrupt. and the kid free to me because i'm just. not feeling very limited. this way or to like detroit the sort of the in your and your large city states and since it's not likely to you. it's the traffic not i expected something else to think of know. in moscow you know the cold war and the strong bloc countries you were expecting it's becoming this is are you thinking of one seat community i was i was mostly red square that's pretty crazy if you think not that we would come out of the crowd first. and you see putin today i

mean is there enough lunatic she's going to have that some guy thinking about him or. going to look at the joy that you that you always see so much in moscow team tasks a task to see that. to. hear. them say like i was like i'm only stating an unbreakable to and through it and look around at. the football. and like call me that and i thought it. was like no other. never found. it's true mantic it's beautiful that's. why a lot of history right here in this area. where it's down to fire you if you've got

a. pulls the nine yeah well so i don't think you. want to save up america when she first told me to go to moscow so of course you go you know who are who who said chance of life the vehicle here and be a foreign correspondent so i was proud of us or yes i do it. oh. no heights of war. can you check my piece to god will please. ok so i. have to do the package. just around today. so. it's going to be. the end of the package so i'll say even though both the rebels and the authorities present here say they support. a solution only.

last. peace talks on syria have suffered a setback in geneva with the opposition refusing to sit at the same table with government representatives still hopes are high that the first direct negotiations will usher in some sort of a solution to the ongoing syrian crisis war and it's now your piskun off your so do tell us what happened there while the talks were supposed to officially start at eleven am with both the opposition sitting down at the same table and formally greeting each other with the u.n. special envoy on syria present as well and it was planned that after that he was going to hold meetings with both sides passing on information and making this dialogue possible but since the rebels refused to sit down at the same table with the of today's talks haven't started informally they have been postponed but nevertheless mr brahimi will still be meeting with both sides separately and by the end of the day we're expecting a media conference hopefully we will be able to find out if these meetings bring

any result. that the head of the syrian opposition. leaving. the rest are remaining and the syrian authorities their delegation is here to stay as well. said they're going to continue talking with mr brahimi one of the main sticking points is that the opposition continues pressing on. president assad to step down while the authorities are saying that first there . stop the violence. in the country and then hold nationwide elections with anyone willing. for the syrian people to decide the country's political future so clearly they're not on the same page when it comes to. the talks are going to continue at least with. the end of the day hopefully we'll find out if they'll bring any results. seem to be easy to find a common denominator there igor thank you for bringing us the latest from geneva. i

don't how war activist brian becker believes the syrian rebels are not prepared to hold meaningful talks on peace and their country. might stay first on my space so here and. there you were. probably heard you were here last time you guys are. staying. private he would tell them what you need five hundred bucks and i was good . for.

america. i thought it all fall. i'm hopeful. that. you get well in arrest and the only paul three times i fell three times hugged the garden oh really like a baby i want to live that way ten seat back. to the head by ten kids pass me out laughing at it but the. words i love did i would pay to see you do that if you. feel. you. were just listening to the point almost all friends for today. this is the one sort of. way with the good because there was a sure fire. into the hole where the bus gone.

just a couple of days ago. representatives of syria's government finally in the same room for the first time since the start of the country. they.

say. are. also became clear that different participants off the talks have a different understanding. seem to be ready to talk about. syria and seem to be ready to. discuss. talks or. frankly even having these people. in the same building may already be considered a diplomatic breakthrough well. inside syria.

crane. first we didn't do anything for a few hours then went to do some easy stuff like eavesdrop and walk around alive or something but we're really looking after this whole situation with the negotiations and in the end we thought that it was just like that's it it was screwed up it was a disaster but then all of a sudden it all changed again to ron who had the skill on a moment when we didn't know who was doing the lives we had to do as lines just in case nobody knew what was going on my phone died and in the end everything just worked out well and i really did feel this in these situations you feel the. second energy burst or something and you just do this life and you feel like this is why you're here i have to report on this sort of stuff and i know i'm not in syria right now and i know i'm not definitely not here friends. this is

a really big part of the story and i'm really glad we did it i think it's a great day really satisfied with myself and the crew and i just hope that. now it all works out with these talks we have you know. just try to see if the fly is it's being lit again they haven't right now but it's a lot of people to. see is a little bit. made in which the opposition. doesn't. then

there was this you will go offensive to move this deadline is fast like twelve minutes ago so that's what we're waiting for a signal to see what happens. god knows what happens on the opposition leaders. into the crowd from the crowd and said about the latest rounds of negotiations with the president which brought nothing the only things that he promised to stop the violence from the police against the protesters and the release of all those four detainees they were like one of several people who talk. while they were saying that the crowds were booing at the opposition leaders and they were chanting liars liars. so this is just that's the crowd no longer believes any one of the president of the opposition they're like pretty much on their own so again we're not through with a grenade. that's how it's. way. i call it something i need help with in the name of the city it's spelled all the people i can. read know all

wrong but all know. we can go to our correspondent peter all of a he is also in the center of kiev and he's closely following the events as they're unfolding so let's get the latest from him oh yes what we see is proof so demonstrates is that prices across ukraine trying to. keep i will demonstrate outside all government buildings now in the in the cities of evolved. we have seen the. local ministration buildings being occupied notes are all the day we saw a large numbers of people gathering in both places a large numbers on independence square now what they were doing is. they were rebuilding suring up and all being themselves on barricades at the entrances to today to the independence square there has been rumors going around here that

perhaps there could be some no not particularly middle. ground just yet but they are both sides willing to to at least speak to each other to talk to each other will be expecting news from those discussions because as stephen progresses. a lot international staying in the thick of events there in the ukrainian capital twenty four seven for you to keep you updated on of course the escalating crisis you can also keep up with what's happening that. kiev may have violated international pacts using helicopters with the u.n. insignia in its crackdown it bears the u.n. insignia the u.s. could lift its longtime ban on exporting oil as its key rival struggled with the

sanctions or insecurity one of the u.s. vice president sons gets a top job in ukraine's largest private natural gas company what other media turns a blind eye to you get on the ati. personel data far trusted a cloud service. that ensures protecting your privacy. could be arranged to randomly get stolen. or become a target of the n.s.a. . what if unclouded sky is right above the clouds on our teeth. at the pledge play it was terrible to say

now i'm very hard to make going to let you get a little longer here there's a lot that never had sex with the perfect there's no legs let alone. lifts a little i'm . a little. we think about why we think there are no. beaches.

swaying in the ocean breeze. and. the deep dark little secret a secret the u.s. government would like you to know. through our labor. day every day. i cannot tell for. her. comments now right and that's. what.

the u.n. says ukraine may have violated international agreements of its confirmed military helicopters with the organization markings and its crackdown in the east of the country. united states considers lifting a decades old exporting oil is the chief competitors contend with western sanctions . and civil war. international criminal court starts an investigation into war crimes including. allegedly committed by u.k. troops.

good evening schieffer just joined us it's eleven pm here in moscow my name's kevin oh in this is our international first this hour the u.n. is examining reports of government forces in ukraine using helicopters bearing the organizations insignia in a military operation in the east of the country if confirmed it would mean kiev is violating its agreement with the united nations the organization said well you can see the helicopters indeed with the u.n. logos during heavy fighting near the city of kramatorsk where several paratroopers were killed with casualties also reported among anti-government activist we asked the u.n. to comment this is what the u.n. told us says the organization says the country that owns the equipment is supposed to remove the insignia when it's no longer being used for official missions using the u.n. identifiers is only allowed on u.n. missions on the crackdown on ukraine's breakaway regions is not one of them. well the video with helicopters was filmed by

a russian journalist crew from the life news t.v. channel they were shot. up the fight to get apparently ended they were unable to leave their car because of the gunfire scaped unscathed we spoke to a correspondent from life new series involved in that very incident back down we're going to come under military vehicles were gone but we tried to enter the village to see if there were casualties among the locals and if anyone needed help but when we got close we came across an a.p.c. with a ukrainian flag on it and armed people dressed in black we were in a car with a sign t.v. on it but they started shooting in our direction we turned around and drove to safety in order not to provoke them our locals are in horror because not get home many took shelter in the basements of their homes you know there was indiscriminate shooting and many bullets hit windows so it was impossible to hide from them in the house itself russia's foreign minister also touched on the ongoing military

operation in eastern ukraine as well of the alleged use of helicopters with u.n. markings an interview carried out with bloomberg t.v. says stopping the offensive is essential if the dialogue with the regions that can is no initiating is to succeed no violence ms first before the end of this operation you cannot invite people to sit down and talk as you continue to shell them from artillery or from mortars from. fighter planes helicopters and we certainly want to understand how it happened that the u.n. . u.n. painter curly copters were used against the protesters in that used in the cells the united nations already expressed its very deep concern but my point is that if you want to promote national dialogue you don't do it. while you are fighting demonstrators who do not agree with your government. now she's chief diplomat was the only answering questions but also asked some of his own especially dressing the

west's constant threat to sanctions against moscow based on dubious reasons even their best just for the sake of revenge is ready to sacrifice its reputation as a reliable partner for the entire world economy then it's up to them to say the big problem is they tell us well if you do not change your policy we will hurt you even more my question is. what is the change you need there is no answer they started by saying couple of months ago you must not invade ukraine we were not going to invade ukraine we are not going to invade ukraine. then they said if you do not. call for the cancellation of this referendums on the eleventh of may so putin said that you know it's up to the people to decide but we

believe that given the intention of oil seed to start the dialogue it would be useful to postpone them now they say if the elections on the twenty fifth of may do not take place for any reason for any reason russia would get the bully a lot of isn't it ridiculous. the interview carried on with bloomberg well despite repeated talk of sanctions there are signs that europe has little appetite for them in fact it's no longer convinced it's right over ukraine this is most clearly a case that germany will tell you why only yesterday the country's vice chancellor admitted that the e.u. is acting and reasonably in relation to ukraine saying that quote it was unwise to create an impression that ukraine had to choose between russia or the e.u. that's probably his statements from former chancellor is stronger and smith as well who said part of the blame for the ukrainian crisis lies with the west earlier told to the guardian columnist north jonathan steele about why much of the e.u. and washington have got different attitudes berman has always been more pragmatic

and realistic. less keen on hawkish confrontation with russia than anybody else in the certainly than the united states a lot of western policy just gives no space for the views of people in eastern and southern ukraine at all they just assume that they're somehow puppets or pawns of moscow that the kremlin is sort of pulling all the strings and it's a real insult to the people of eastern ukraine who have their own views some of the hardliners have a very different view from russia it's quite clear they held a referendum in spite of putin saying it should have been perspire and and then there are the moderate voices who also want to a different policy but they should be listened to too and they're the ones who feel that there's too much domination in kiev of western ukrainians some of them with near nazi and fascist background and there should be a much more representative government and that's why they also feel that the may the twenty fifth presidential election will not really produce much of

a solution. we're just a few hundred kilometers away from the fighting in eastern ukraine is a very different battle being fought in crimea the peninsula that recently rejoined russia was suffering from a drastic shortage of water of print supplies through the north crimean canal were cut off by ukrainian authorities but has no having travelled to the republicans see how people there are coping with the people of starry krynn this is a big day is the day the water truck comes and it brings the locals rushing together the only water they'll have for drinking cooking and washing the next two days when they shut down the can now it created a situation that affects all of us today for example i watched myself and just have a bucket of water i don't even have enough for a normal bath and what about the farms what will they do now this is seventy seven year old valentino and her need for clean water is greater than most because not only does she need it for a self but also for taking care of her bedridden son what does on this see my son's

paralyzed and i had to keep the water used to wash his bed sheets because i need it for flushing the toilet valentino and a neighbor's these last two months have been tough but it all started shortly after crimea rejoined russia within days ukraine had cut off the water that runs into this region's main canal just a few puddles of stagnant water that's all that remains now in the north crimean canal no longer does the fresh water flow into here from the river did yeah and that's a problem that's left the residents of this region high and dry. and it's not just the public you've been suffering with businesses like this vision yard also feeling the heat as it faces up to the prospect of the last harvest well an idea of the world no water is coming in at the moment we had hoped some water would still continue to flow there were some still trickling down but recently we found that they used send back to block the canal russian authorities have been trying to ease

the problem by finding alternative sources of water so just by tapping into underground wells long term though the solution will need to be a political one and that shows no sign of coming seeing. where ready to pay ukraine to give us back our water we're prepared the mint and met with them six times but each time they say they don't like the agreement that there is something wrong with it so more time is wasted and now it looks like crimea will lose its crops reporting from crimea this is neil harvey for r.t. you know that's the big worry about the crops were we heard from crimea that care might be ready to resume water supplies now if the sides can agree on a price but some officials doubt that's going to happen any time soon so even if it does though as you were saying in that report the damage is already being done to the region's agriculture we'll follow the story closely amid the ukraine crisis and fears over energy supplies to europe cause been growing in the block to secure a new supplier and it seems the us may be ready to step into the breach that says

the country's skyrocketing oil production levels made the white house consider now lifting a forty year old export ban and enter the world market selling should be used in every course some of its potential competitors have had their oil industries essentially destroyed by years of unrest with the us played a part of his gun and he can explains more. three years after a civil war broke out in libya the country's oil infrastructure is in disarray the country is awash with weapons heavily armed militias are invading oil fields seizing major all ports locals are blockading facilities the manning jobs libya's oil production plummeted from one point four million barrels a day in twenty eleven to one hundred fifty thousand barrels a day in march this year libya has the largest proven oil reserves in africa major international energy companies operating in the country believe the production will eventually pick up but before it happens we'll see more disruptions due to the

chaotic situation there serious or production is in shambles due to the civil war there in the last three years it went from four hundred thousand barrels a day to twenty five thousand it took iraq years to recover from the blow that was delivered to its oil industry by sanctions than the us invasion and the subsequent civil war iraq's output began to rise only four years ago after it secured service contracts with large oil groups such as b.p. shell exxon mobil and any iraq has become the second largest producer of crude oil in opec having surpassed the wrong and is planning to produce more so the energy giants are looking to profit there even despite security challenges there's no development going on we're going to get any kind of benefit from this oil it's not like anyone investing in. electricity or anything else so i think the political destruction of the economic destruction of these countries goes

together with increasing to droll companies the crisis in ukraine offers certain benefits and opportunities for u.s. and european energy giants any disruption in supply of russian energy to europe would be good news for them among other things it would allow the companies to lobby for. more exploration licenses especially in the development of shale gas in this thing europe all under the banner of diversifying europe's energy supplies in washington i'm going to check on r.t. of course iraq and libya are among the world's top all produces that have been targeted by the u.s. and it's not always about military action tough sanctions were imposed on iran of course back in two thousand and twelve which half of that country's export revenues within a year not forgetting either in venezuela or president would do a recently accused washington of instigating street protests in order to get its hands on the country's all reserves currently the largest reserves in the world it must be noted plus the crisis in ukraine has already led to washington sanctioning

a number of russian companies and officials threatening broader restrictions on the country's energy sector well according to a founding member of a civil rights group americans for aids abroad were never about taking over energy supplies william dora's says the relay here was simply to destroy the competition. the rise in the us all energy production is made possible by massive investment in hydraulic fracturing or fracking and that is made possible by the high price of oil that is obtained since the u.s. invaded iraq and destroyed its. state owned oil industry the war in iraq was the best thing that ever happened for exxon mobil and chevron the biggest us oil producers that took like ten percent of the world's oil supply off the market that's why the sanctions are the best of the sanctions on iran are about syria is not a major oil producer but it is a close attention for iranian oil to reach the mediterranean basically war in the middle east whether it's the destruction of iraq or the bombing of libya the

sanctions on iran have served to keep prices high and restrict production which is just given to us that they did it's a myth that u.s. so-called energy self-sufficiency will lead to less u.s. overseas military involvement in fact it will lead to more much more come off the break having stayed with this including the food regulation and how it adds to the plight of small businesses. well told you my language as well but i will only react to situations i haven't read the reports so let me put it to the no i will leave it to the state department to comment on your latter point to say. the security of a car is on the docket no. thank you no more weasel. when you think you need a direct question the proof for

a change when you have to. be ready for a. freedom of speech. down to freedom to watch. choose your language. choose the consensus. choose the opinions that. choose the stories get him to. choose access to. its national criminal courts for launching a preliminary examination of alleged war crimes committed by the u.k. military in iraq britain's troops are accused of unlawfully killing more than sixty men and torturing dozens more in custody. the preliminary investigation

is into allegations of prisoner abuse by u.k. personnel in iraq between two thousand and three and two thousand and eight now we've seen videos in the past that have documented instances of abuse of detainees but the ministry of defense has always maintained that the vast majority of soldiers serving in iraq acted professionally now campaigners have alleged that the abuse with far more widespread in these allegations have never really gone away that was two thousand and six when the international criminal court was first asked to look into allegations of war crimes that at the time they determined that threshold had not being met now as this year at the beginning of the year that we saw this new file two hundred fifty pages of what lawyers say is more than four hundred cases of allegations of mistreatment or unlawful killing was passed to the

i.c.c. and it's so on the back of that that we've seen this initial investigation taking place now the i.c.c. preliminary investigation could actually take several years before they decide whether to take it any further and remember the international criminal court set up to bring justice against these accused of war crimes or crimes against humanity and it is the first time that the u.k. has found itself the subject of an i.c.c. probe albeit a preliminary one of the government is saying they will fully cooperate with the investigation but they completely reject that u.k. servicemen are responsible for the left turn and. who was in the british army it was legal officers the during the iraq war says he witnessed works of abuse. as early as march in two thousand and three at the wall was just days old and i went

into the war camp to deal with another issue and looked into an interrogation facility where i saw approximately forty prisoners and in stress positions and the use of generators which in my view was being used liberally well i mean i think if you're a prisoner just freshly captured and you're about to be interrogated and someone's got a generator running outside the interrogation facility and you've got a hold on your head you probably think it's being used to muffle the sound of someone being investigated and whatever's going on in the interrogation facility it was said that it was lawful it was part of u.k. doctrine and when i complained that it breached the geneva conventions i was told that i've got the law wrong it's british under international law under the un convention against torture it's pretty dumb domestic law and thirdly it doesn't work and it is morally degrades i have no truck with that at all and i think we really need to educate the public in this particular to made the trouble is that the british stated got away with it to far too long which online clean sweep for

germany should have offered a bottle of cold beer in exchange for a couple of hours of street cleaning deal you decide article comes a place to redeploy a night so salience perhaps the sailors behaving badly in latvia a local mayor says they're acting on people out of the homes but no accounts of the hell the military guests apparently are accused of raising again when i catch a format story a bit more detail it said r t v dot com. france is claiming that scotland troops in syria may have used chemical weapons in more than a dozen attacks two in the past months damascus has denied the accusations saying the country is closely following the international disarmament plan that was agreed last year principal commentator john white believes the claims are part of a wider anti assad campaign though. that is absolutely no concrete evidence being provided to back up the claims by even the french government the timing of this is very very suspicious because we had to commit to each of the four presidential

elections in syria and i think when the government and its army. when in major major victories on the ground so this seems thing to try and get to my knees even in advance and elation and the idea that. the last two years should willingly not wish to list them to. step down is nonsense. syria's largest city aleppo came perilously close to a humanitarian cust catastrophe when for the week residents were cut off water supplies following the markets and she's been on top of this story closely she talks about it in today's breaking the set. the same country d.c. neo-cons been invited to bomb the hell out of is undergoing a devastating humanitarian crisis according to syrian foreign ministry three million people in the city of aleppo have been without potable drinking water for nine entire days according to digital journal extremist rebel forces have the seeds

of the city have taken control of two main pumping stations and regime held areas but their attack backfired and end up cutting off water for everyone including the rebel stronghold and the heavily divided battleground city as you can see from these devastating images the situation is beyond dire women and children are being forced to collect water from contaminated mosques and while just to survive civilians are drinking water any way they can building makeshift pumps and drinking out of dirty potholes and even resorting to drinking waste water. briefs night turkish police have clashed with crowds angry at the death of at least two hundred forty five workers in tuesday's pay and. security forces fired water cannons to disperse a crowd of people demanding the resignation of promise to read the win over the tragedy as crews are still desperately trying to locate more than a hundred people still unaccounted for the explosion was caused by an electrical

fault. french photo has been killed in the central african republic the twenty six year old was found dead in a visit to the west of the country with christian militia battling muslim fighters so far over seven thousand troops from frogs the e.u. and the african union of failed to quell sectarian tensions of the thousands of people dead some twelve thousand u.n. peacekeepers are also expected to be deployed in the country. september. indian mangoes have turned sour for lawmakers who've imposed an import ban on the fruit it's yet another than of brussels rulings on food standards that have on many occasions left the media and public amused but as a polly boy her experience next is no laughing matter for businesses that are suffering from the decisions of bureaucrats. we make mental moralistic mango chutney. the list goes on desserts. all kinds of things with the mind britain consumes ninety one percent of the indian meringue those that come into the e.u.

or rather consumed on my fence to move north of they've been banned for i have to keep telling them i give you about ten thousand customers more and see the first of may i've been telling all of them that it's banned the e.u. has banned import after fruit flies crept into shipments of the portuguese businesses selling the indian mangoes say that banning their customers favorite fruit is banal and it is because he's told me this is going to cost him around twelve million pounds and the issue is in areas of the united kingdom which are very diverse rather large populations of. the indian subcontinent mungo's tremendously popular so very quickly they're used in the restaurant trade so it's really a big hit for businesses in certain sections of the u.k. the fruit flies found in the mangroves don't pose a risk to public health but they do pose a serious threat to e.u. salad crops tomatoes in particular. these tempi restrictions are important to

protect the home grown solid crops from potential pests and diseases those affected by the burn say the e.u. has chosen to protect its salad instead of trade we have identified as australia new zealand japan have identified very safe treatments which would eliminate any risk of the you could have put that in place as a compulsory treatment it's not cheap expends to ask to be at school but it means that you can have a free trade if you just found the item you're not giving any kind of child in this store even as we film the customers ask about the indian mangoes and substitutes aren't on the menu this is the first contentious e.u. food ban last year process trying to. burned olive oil from being poured into dipping balls in restaurants which caused restauranteurs to revolt with a fruit seller as up in arms say that this ban m.p.'s are calling on the e.u.

to reconsider and bring back the exotic fate polyploid. will follow the story of ahead or not it's national cross-talk looking at possible scenarios for ukraine and europe's future relations and if you're in the u.k. a good evening going to special program few action say with going underground. personal data are trusted a cloud service. that ensures protecting your privacy. could be arranged to randomly get stolen.

or become a target of the n.s.a. . what if unclouded sky is right above the clouds on our t.v. . we think of the way we think there are good. for us and beaches. coconut palms gently swaying in the ocean breeze. in fact. why it has a deep dark little secret as. secret the u.s. government would like you know. through all labor. oh i did dearly succeeded in getting all will the new.

personel data far trusted cloud service. that ensures protecting your privacy. could be a race to randomly get stolen. or become a target of the n.s.a. . what if unclouded sky is right above the cloud on our t.v. . i know c.n.n. the m s n b c fox news have taken some not slightly but the fact is i admire their

commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate. that was funny but it's close and for the truth and might think. it's because when full attention and the mainstream media works side by side the joke is actually on we're. going to get. at our teen years we have a different brain. because the news of the world just is not this funny i'm not laughing dammit i'm not. i'm. sure you got a sense of jeff's well handled it makes sense that i got. hello

and welcome to crossfire for all things considered i'm peter lavelle in the wake of referenda demanding self-determination ukraine as a sovereign state continues down the path of disintegration the western backed regime in camp is adamant it will not talk to so-called terrorists meanwhile protesters in the east and south of ukraine are voting with their feet. to cross talk ukraine i'm joined by my guest mark mccall in london he's a specialist on international affairs at the university of london in new york we have michael hudson he's an author and an economics professor at the university of missouri kansas city and in boston we cross to daniel welsh he is a writer and political and also a gentleman cross-talk rose and i mean you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it martin if i go to you first in london well the referendum passed

there will no one was surprised about by about i'm no one is surprised that washington can't don't recognize them no surprise there and russia is staying on the sidelines as it has during this entire crisis here this seems to me an opportunity or we're going to step into greater tragedy we have legitimacy we have a democratic process and ukraine people do have agency they do have opinions they they are expressing their ideas they don't like the regime and care of what they what they think about russia that's still one clear here this is an opportunity right now but it's probably not going to be taken well it. is a very interesting stage of a first because in the one thousand nine hundred one period period it has never occurred before yes new republic of the soviet union has in fact changes border returned to the changes borders with the exception perhaps of george. so there's a new situation and everyone is getting used to it the interesting thing is that the referendum what ahead in donetsk who hunts hopeless but it didn't go ahead in

hockey or blissed hockey majority the population of ukraine in the last census two thousand and one seventy percent and that surprises being the must be some reason for that. the situation is really very very confused because as the german foreign minister said in kiev today. ukraine needs a president to waiting for the election thirty fifth of may and hopefully a president would be elected that he can begin to go shooting with the separatists well you don't want the market in them are now would be would depend would be really nice if everyone had a fair chance to vote here michael if i can go to you i mean this is this is farcical if they only had a president well they did have a president and he was elected for all of his failings you know code which was a legitimately elected president of ukraine and all ukrainians participated there's ample amount of evidence that when this poll was held not all ukrainians will vote

and we don't even know the level of coersion at the ballot box so this is farcical it tells me the european union has no idea what it's doing and because you knew when it continues to go from one stumble to the next i think the does know what it's doing i think what's happening in ukraine is just a replay of what happened in chile when a london was overthrown by pinochet that you have an identical case of a coup d'etat a military coup being backed by the united states the first thing they did in the ukraine as they did in chile was attack the labor union leaders you can see that in odessa when the labor union building was burned down and i think if you look at the reap at the how the chilean unfolded over the weekend the german press reported they brought in blackwater assassin. nation squads just like the u.s. brought in assassination squads and shelly so what there is an attempt to do is to

impose a government on and last month george soros wrote an article in the new york review of books saying the objective is to encourage the companies in the ukraine that is the kleptocrats to sell out to their european partners to take the europe european partners in though and then have the i.m.f. come in impose austerity for the population and squeeze out more of a surplus for the foreign investors while waiting the foreign investors buy in to the industry and the agriculture largely but micro there in iowa where you see a lot of it there's one problem with that and i'd like to go to dan in boston the people in east and south ukraine aren't going along with it that's the difference. right right i think. i think that the thousands of people who were disappeared by pinochet and you know thrown out of planes actually contributed to the terror on

the ground that kept people in their place but i would when you when you started peter you said that no one is surprised by this i have to admit to confess actually to an ongoing sense of surprise particularly for the reason you just pointed out i have been inspired. brought to tears astounded actually by the day to day resistance of the people in you give us talk all across every single day i wake up and i said this in an article i wrote recently glad to be alive because i'm glad they're still alive each time when putin said you know maybe we should hold off on this recommend on this referendum and they said you know this really isn't about you know and i had sources in slovyansk saying this isn't going to work i mean how are we going to do this in four days the cities and in shambles and they stood up the block by block around these thousands of people standing in line and doing this against all odds i think is is the white astounding it's inspirational

it's it's also go ahead keep going it's also beyond belief actually i mean i think that we're trying to put this into paradigms that we have here to for understood what the u.s. has done through black water these are all perfectly great analyses and i share them but i think that we're being surprised all the time by what's going on on the ground and that's what i think is both dangerous and exciting and inspiring like you said. i just. i'm on the edge of my seat you know why we all are that's why we keep continue to do this topic cross talk here more and i think if we have a really interesting here is that if i look at the western echo chamber the way they cover ukraine. it's always about pro russian separatists are pro russian this progress in that they like to keep out of the equation and that it's that it's anti to hear in the type of regime that it's been installed in camp this is completely

alien to these people i celebrated victory day may ninth and i saw how we celebrated in eastern and south ukraine they celebrated in the way that is completely alien to the narrative that is being played out in kiev this is very very important because we now have a situation where. the. people's republic of crimea want to separate from russia from ukraine crimea has really separate but do not speak republic if it doesn't join russia it's economically viable so therefore it has to negotiate some type of deal with kyo kiev has to negotiate a deal with them to keep them within the republic of ukraine so therefore that is to come and it's very very important that the russians there feel that they're equal citizens of ukraine and they can you don't mind with the market let me let me ask you a question do you have any evidence you money i don't let me just finish up with a question mark and you have any evidence that the regime in kiev has any respect

for these people because here's a government that's killing its own people does that ring a bell i hear that all the time in washington in london there is a government that is killing its people and they are i don't see that as a partnership with gary dennison let me finish up on that point go ahead. it's that good to go back to this point it's a question of sovereignty illegitimacy the government in kiev believes itself to be civil and legitimate and therefore it sees donetsk people's republic of the attempt to break away from ukraine which they see as legitimate illegitimate and therefore they want to keep the state together and they feel they have the right to use force the problem is you can't really use force in eastern ukraine anymore because it's self-defeating and if you look at the pictures of the people there want. the police the police and soldiers coming in from the rest of ukraine in several cities several towns the police have changed sides yeah and no longer

defending the ukrainian republic they see themselves as belonging to some other entity perhaps the people's republic of donetsk and then they're waiting many of them away to say they prefer to be part of russia many ethnic russians are saying no we want to be we don't want to join russia we want to be separate in some way well they definitely want to be separated i definitely want to be separate from the gang that's running kiev and being supported by washington michael you want to jump in godhead. yes one reason i don't expect to acknowledge the eastern ukraine is the effect on european politics of all of this i think the united states is telling you have to keep the hard line in order to do the saber rattling to promote the pro austerity pala parties in the coming european elections you saw on sunday the effect of lithuania election where the pro austerity prime

minister was reelected and her popularity in the polls went way up as a result of this using the fear of russia to panic the nationalistic parties whether it's in latvia or lithuania or estonia all to support austerity and that's really the problem how do you get parties for the last twenty years in the baltics for instance to support austerity you say well the alternative is to be pro russian because the russian speaking parties are joined with the social democrats so all this is a move to fight against social democracy to impose austerity on all the rest of europe that's what this ukraine and the effect of the ukraine fights in the key of intolerance is promoting in germany in france and of course the result turns as you point out to be the opposite it's leading to huge demonstrations in germany really against the u.s. aggression and trying to turn nato instead of

a protective alliance into an aggressive ally ok let me go to dan here before we go to the break dan oh my goodness i didn't know russia was so powerful that. putin is the height of everything i think he helped lead this morning. one thing that i want to get back to that mean that you said i think it's really really important in ukraine because of the long history of antipathy but the pro. pro russian separatists progress in terrorists they can't they can't be pro russian if they're russian so this is. if they are i can i like to refer to them as pro self humans and their pros self this morning i'm going to be pro me and it's that no matter how much crap you throw on the mean you cannot make it look like something other than what it is they had to go on t.v. on ukrainian t.v. which is a cartoon like before nish and said nice that they say now knowing that clown are you dan hold that thought we're going to go to

a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on ukraine stay with r.t. . the only thing we want. is. a. very hard to take i don't. want to get on here a lot happened that back with the earthquake here nothing's.

going to. join me. for in-depth impartial and financial commentary cancer news and much much. only on the bus and.

among the people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist so it's time to blow the whistle and start a revolution before we're all slaves to the corrupt and the generally corrupt. economics right. now i. want to. sign. the lease. is a. welcome

across talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle we're discussing the crisis in ukraine. ok dan i'd like to go back to you making a point here it's really interesting when you think about ukrainian history if you know anything about it identity is really the big dividing line what you are who you are who you relate to again the washington crowd thinks of ukraine is this unitary thing maybe they're not too bright and we can get them to go against russia i mean i think that's the kind of simple formula ok and it was called obviously it hasn't worked so go ahead do it is pretty condescending and i think it may be that it's the washington crowd that isn't very bright or that doesn't know anything about history but the demonization that's happening and being promoted by the

west but also happening indigenously in kiev you know this teaching children to sing told me scotch and talk more skull you know whoever doesn't jump is a russian and to have an art exhibit with people in a cage and saying don't feed them they're not human and they have russian flags and st george ribbons there is it is a it is is pure racism in any in any form that you can imagine and you see the ethnic tensions being exploited it's not again you can say that the western ukrainians are not all fascist the west and koreans want what they want there's a lot of the people involved in my done want to democracy wanted an end to corruption and oligarchy but you have to then acknowledge that nobody from the east is massing on kiev no one from. kharkov is marching into love of and

murdering people that's not happening that way it is an anti russian campaign and it's a very it's a very sick thing that's happening in the dehumanization is a central element of it martin it's very interesting what dan just said because. alternately and i don't know how we're going to get there but alternately russia is a very big part of the solution to the crisis in ukraine but if you listen to the boer horns of propaganda in foggy bottom and. i want to say that i had a chance ok it was late department there you know russia is never going to be brought on board though if you have been watching very carefully over the last few weeks and months russia has proposed deescalation time and again and it still is that washington can't hear it won't hear it you know how do we get from where we are now to where we need to be. i think that russia is part of the solution you can't solve the ukrainian problem of the ongoing problems which you

see as east you can't solve that without russian participation the must be russian diplomatic involvement and what will act probably happen is after the election of a president on the twenty fifth of may and remember that the ukrainian population now dominates on likely that any any candidate who's pro russian will be elected so let's assume that approach he you a pro western president is elected then washington and the e.u. will then say to him you have to now deal with these two have to deal with moscow you have to come to some deal one remembers now the i.m.f. has promised ukraine seventeen billion dollars and others are talking about twenty seven billion dollars in the pipeline and that will only be a while before coming if a solution is found to the present problem on the words you're dropping that money into deep black hole so it's up to the new president and he will have to come to

some rapprochement with moscow with he obviously not deal with president putin directly would have to do with sergei lavrov and find some solution which is acceptable to those in donetsk is that we don't accept the debts people's republic you'll be the donetsk oblast. and so on and we have to come to some agreement that may mean that it's a kind of federation that there's a lot of autonomy there for the people the ethnic russians in the huns and donetsk and then if that model that works it's possible that other areas if they kharkiv how to keep it surprised me how hockey if city and hockey for blissed has a majority ukrainian population something seventy percent but they're not participating in a people's republic now. they and then say well whatever donetsk and luhansk gets we would like to get the top of it all the way and then you look at the procedure

and you look you can go right round ukraine you go down to the disco and so on the danger here for ukraine is they will be left with kiev and the west and kiev will be in one part of the country really run by western craniums and the rest of the country will in many ways rule itself now economically that's not sustainable because ukraine in ukraine is in fact the basket case economically at present. very weak and if you look at the destruction which is going on they're destroying the economy and so therefore there's a desperate need for key of these and do know it's going to once leaders to come together and find some solution michel because often i'm going to go to my goal here because to be followed through this crisis i don't see any sanity coming out of kiev on a on anything at all i mean what they're cutting off the water to crimea i mean don't they have better things to do you agree ok that one of the interesting thing

here is number of the e.u. and go ahead jump in the you and the united states have explained how russia can solve the crisis it can solve the crisis by not charging ukraine for gas can solve the crisis for a ridiculous thing at a price for gas and subsidizing that would national soul destroying just by letting the factories the fact the idea is very explicit the factories that are now expert exporting goods and services to russia can stop exporting to russia especially stop exporting to a military that many of their factories don't begin exporting to the west and let your brain import if you goods and send into russia so that all tariff free that's the solution that russia is being offered by the only you in the united states you know it works for you and you said the word russia to all of her being offered i'd like to how you put it there you know dan this is really what he's going. it's all about to me because for some reason i don't know what was in newlands cookies i

don't know maybe she put in extreme grief that i don't know ok but there was this is sumption that russia would do not want anyone during all this would do nothing this is a major miscalculation here because it's very interesting is that in a different way the russian has done very very little it is watch ukraine disintegrate and it didn't have to be that way i mean look at ukraine back in november of last year it wasn't doing great but it wasn't falling apart and they weren't killing each other now russia is going to continue to watch ok and it's very possible if we see more referenda that these independent republics if they want to call themselves of course they won't be recognized but they may join russia's custom union that would be a red line for a lot of people. yes i think that that mean it's there's no question that there's no part of ukraine that isn't is more viable in separation than it is in unity but it's not viable in unity either they need to ally and contain continue the

alliances that they've had with russia and with europe in varying degrees so i don't think there's any question of them trying to make it on their own you know it's not going to be endora or you know just statelet they're going to be allied very closely to russia but i also i think it's very important to note i think we're talking a couple weeks ago here i think that the ship has sailed on federalization i really do i don't think like you said first of all there's no sanity nothing at all no sanity there's no partner to talk to there's no sanity coming out of either the junta or their puppet masters and the danger is that as events progress they get away from you which is what i think is exciting what they should think is alarming the citizens of and this includes a desk and car come and put a watch in all of the other elements of the entire what could be called the little

c.-a they just haven't got there yet that's all that's the only thing that is stopping them they didn't have enough strength i've seen means floating with. course got a small little with a separate flag and it says that's right it's almost our turn you know they are all waiting in the wings and there is no there is no way after odessa and after money you paul both massacres that were supported and even to some extent planned by the that they're going to put the genie back in the bottle they have decided that they're on they're not listening to putin they're not listening to you is there they are like i said self pro self humans only michael they don't have michael let's look at your crystal ball you know. a lot about a stairway in the i.m.f. here let's say for example there is a pro european pro american president after this election not all the people in the east participate ok they're probably going to get around that but i could not relevant i could well imagine within weeks months certainly

a year or so when austerity kicks in we will have another my dawn ok all over again and they're very good at doing that ok because i cannot see under these conditions where ukraine is going to everyone's going to be happy to live even poorer and it's a poor country i know it very well well right now you're having almost gandhian type passive resistance on the part of the ukrainians all they can do is say we're going to have a vote we know there's no constitution but we don't want a part of the kleptocracy and of course they say what's coming from the i.m.f. the i.m.f. will make ukraine look like italy or ireland or greece ireland and greece have lost twenty percent of their population as a result of austerity you'll have a flight of ukrainian plumbers into europe or into russia or wherever they can go what they're saying is we want to stop the kleptocracy and that's the only thing

and the interesting thing is the other item in today's newspaper in america was christine legarde the head of the i.m.f. was invited to smith college in america to give the a commencement address the students rose up just like the ukrainians to oppose her and not let her come to smith because of they oppose the i.m.f. this was applauded in the u.s. but when the ukrainians oppose the i.m.f. it's treated as terrorism that a terrorist is an attack on democracy so you have an orwellian world in which democracy means pro-american. or a dictatorship or a penalty or the other backers it we're living in an orwellian world after all of this and all they can do is resist it and say there must be an alternate. well i guess i can say on a good note there is democracy in action in ukraine where no growth we've run out of time gentlemen many thanks to my guests in london new york and in boston and thanks to our viewers for watching us here to see you next time and remember.

the legal. system to. the people are going to be going to want your life for. the taking every minute. not me no law no well. my old life.

was setting all time. this case is no longer. sometimes for nothing which. is so we. just we still will be shocked if he sees the state. to be. but he was. it looks like. we're going to go digital the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution and. that's because a free and open process is critical to our democracy albus. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and our press several we've been hydrogen why

a handful of trans national corporations will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once told us i'm tom martin and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world if we go beyond identifying the problem to try to fix rational debate and a real discussion critical issues facing america if i ever go ready to join the movement then walk a bit of. personal data far trusted cloud service. that ensures protecting your privacy. could be a race to randomly get stolen. or become a target of the n.s.a.

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it because i'm. coming up on our t.v. in eastern ukraine government forces clashed with anti-government activists reports of command of ukrainian military helicopters bearing the united nations insignia the latest on that just ahead. and in the u.s. military there's been a rise in the use of synthetic marijuana for soldiers wanting to avoid drug testing a look at how it could change the nature of treating addiction in the armed forces coming up. and in the run up to the world cup in brazil a group of activists established the people's cup prompting a visit from the country's president more on the movement against skyrocketing rent which protesters blamed on the world's most watched sporting event later in the show.

it's wednesday may fourteenth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm going to france you're watching our team america. the u.n. is examining reports of government forces in ukraine using helicopters burying the organizations and signal military operations in the east of the country the helicopters were seen during heavy fighting near the city of kramatorsk where several paratroopers were killed with casualties also reported among the anti-government activists archies are going to go is in the region with more. there is a video that was filmed by the crew off the life news channel which allegedly shows one of the three helicopters involved in the incident around kramatorsk and there is a u.n. insignia party has contacted the united nations for comment and have gotten a response now according to they're going to zation the country has the equipment that has the u.n. insignia on it is supposed to strip it after the equipment is no longer involved in the official u.n. mission more over using the u.n.

identifiers is only allowed on such mission and the crackdown in ukraine isn't and now the life crew that has filmed the helicopters earlier came under attack from the national guard and the ukrainian army troops they were caught in the gunfire seemingly when the fighting was over luckily no one was hurt in that incident and we have contacted the life news correspondent. gone we tried to into the village to see if there were casualties among the locals and if anyone needed help when we got close we came across an a.p.c. with a ukrainian flag. people dressed in black we were in a calm with a sign on it but they started shooting in our direction and we turned around and drove to safety in order to provoke. become and get home many took shelter in the basements of their home it was indiscriminate shooting amended bullets hit windows so it was impossible to hide from them in the house itself this

is far from being the first incident involving a journalist working in the crane unfortunately a journalist working for are. roughly has been crossfire just last week. filming a storming. off the police headquarters he was wearing a bulletproof vest however the journalist believes that there was absolutely no way that he had been mistaken for competence nevertheless he was shot and give authorities would not allow a medical evacuation plane to. land in order to transport him for treatment for three days r.t. has sounded the alarm with international journalism watchdogs over the situation in ukraine which becomes increasingly more dangerous for journalists european a federation of journalists has issued their condemnation saying that the absolutely no violence a should be used against people who are only armed with cameras and that reinforces a previous statement made in relation to the situation with journalists in ukraine

we are gravely concerned that journalists have become targets for the principal factions in the current crisis in ukraine journalist representing outlets from various countries including the united states and russia have been detained or denied entry visas while others have been threatened and beaten reports is for international outlets a treaty is untrue and even ukrainian journalists are abused as traces or commodities in kidnap for profit schemes. now even though the self-defense troops have already said that they are ready to lay down arms if ukraine army leaves the region however he of authorities are insisting that what's happening here is an anti-terrorism operation and half so far refused to withdraw their troops. that was artie's or nicholas. a son of vice president joe biden has joined the board of directors of ukraine's largest private gas producer hunter biden now leads the

company's legal unit and as artie's miniport i explains this could be little more than a coincidence since the start of the crisis in ukraine washington has provided on wavering moral and financial support to anti-government protesters particularly those who spearheaded the uprising over the past months steve has received special visit from the cia director the secretary of state his assistant senators and most recently u.s. vice president joe biden who recently crossed the atlantic to assure your premiums that america's involvement in their crisis is sincere we would say. to you all the in the preview in time democracy can be delivered to the ukrainian people it is not just. a foreign policy judgment is a personal issue motional commitment as well by millions of americans. and as you attempt to pursue energy security well as it turns out joe biden's

youngest son will be conveniently playing on a major role in ukraine's pursuit of energy independence hunter biden has been appointed head of legal affairs out for response holdings ukraine's largest private gas producer the us vice president's son will also join the company's board of directors consulting on matters related to international expansion and policies surrounding the country's economy critics say this is typical washington politics exploiting a foreign crisis for personal gain of course when the united states gets involved as most every other country on earth if they get involved in some foreign adventures they try to portray the most altruistic and platonic. sashing possible. however it's very difficult. to disentangle business interests national interests rice president biden has repeatedly accused moscow of meddling in ukraine's affairs

also insisting that america will help he reduce its dependency on russia's energy mr biden just didn't mention that his own son and the u.s. would be better if it in the interim reporting from new york arena for nigh on r.t. . in an unprecedented move by the pentagon the soldier sentenced to thirty five years in prison for sending classified military documents to wiki leaks could be moved from military prison to federal prison in order to receive treatment for her gender disorder private chelsea manning formerly bradley manning has asked for the hormone hormone treatments required to begin the transition to living as a woman for the d.o.d. refuses to provide such treatment though its doctors can diagnose the need for it and have been mannix case and though the don't ask don't tell law has been repealed transgender people are still barred from military service defense secretary chuck hagel gives his reasons for that the issue of transgender is a bit more complicated because it. has. a medical component

to it i do think it continually should be reviewed i'm open to that by the way. at the same time legal experts have said that keeping a transgender soldier in a men's prison without treatment could amount to cruel and unusual punishment this is where the federal bureau of prisons comes in which does provide treatment prompting hagel to greenlight discussions of a possible transfer plan but it was kept under wraps until two pentagon officials leaked the information to the associated press pentagon press secretary rear admiral admiral john kirby said no decision to transfer private manning to a civilian detention facility has been made and any such decision of course properly ballot will properly balance the soldier's medical needs with our obligation to ensure she remains behind bars well ensuring she remains behind bars is one thing ensuring she's safe behind bars while receiving treatment is quite another a concern for manning's attorney who has weighed in saying the legal team was never

notified that such a transfer was even on the cards in fact he released a statement claiming the pentagon strategically leaked the information in an attempt to pressure manning to drop the treatment request forcing her to essentially choose between personal safety at fort leavenworth and medical treatment at a federal prison he blames the d.o.d. for not taking proper responsibility of its military members saying the military is refusal to provide necessary medical treatment to chelsea is flat out transphobia rather than deal with the reality that transgender persons are currently serving in the military the military would seek to pawn off any responsibility for these individuals to other entities transfers are normally never done unless the appeals process has failed in manning's case it's only just begun the soldier has been diagnosed by military doctors multiple times with gender dysphoria the sense of being a woman in a man's body manning submitted a complaint in march over the delay in proper treatment. u.s.

military members looking to get high i might have one less option available researchers study addictive behavior at the university of washington found that synthetic marijuana sometimes called spice has come in pretty handy for soldiers wanting their extracurricular activities to go undetected by drug tests but it can also lead to more chemical dependency causing the military to possibly switch gears and how a test for and treats drug use argues make a lopez has more. and the university of washington study has discovered that an increasing number of current service members are turning to synthetic canal benoit's in order to get a high synthetic oils are also known as spice k two or synthetic marijuana essentially they are a lab created drugs that are meant to mimic the effects of the psycho active ingredient in cannabis also known as t.h.c. the defense department's founded the study which monitors three hundred sixty eight soldiers at the joint base lewis mccord in washington state it was supposed to

focus on the ways that the military could help encourage troops with all types of substance abuse problems to seek treatment however during the course of the study researchers found that synthetic canal benoit's were brought up so frequently that they had to change their report in order to account for the drug not only did they have an increased number of soldiers using the drug but also increased rates of dependency by their estimates troops were two and a half times more likely to develop dependence than other types of drug users now researchers also discovered that narcotics using the soldiers were twice as likely to try spice than to try real marijuana now the biggest factor researchers found as to why synthetic canal benoit's are becoming more popular is the fact that they are very hard to detect in a normal your analysis test the military has banned the use of all synthetic

substances but until recently it has not specifically tested for these types of drugs commanders are now receiving training on synthetic canal been noise and how to identify abusers the military is also modifying its tests to search for spice joint base lewis mcchord reported at one thousand nine hundred thirty positive test in two thousand and eleven and only one thousand one one hundred. three in twenty thirteen however the true number of users that might be much higher than current test suggests because those tests don't have a very high success rate one major reason why the military and researchers are so concerned over the use of this drug by soldiers has to do with pre-conditions health care providers believe that people who are suffering from mental illness are at a much higher risk of having a negative reaction to the drugs then other people who are using it they believe that spice can trigger the onset of psychosis they can have psychological effects

including anxiety including depression confusion and memory issues as well as physical effects like trouble breathing now because an increasing number of current and former returning soldiers are suffering from psychological conditions such as p.t.s.d. this group could be particularly vulnerable to having negative reactions to this drug a troubling example of this is the case of a nineteen year old able soldier named to quote a wolf who was using spice when he actually stabbed a woman to death outside of her apartment in two thousand and eleven he was sentenced to twenty years in prison so it looks like the military and health care providers are trying to get ahead of this problem before it becomes a more serious but with troops constantly trying to disguise their addictions to keep their jobs the battle still has a long road ahead of it in front of the pentagon meghan lopez r.t.

. the white house has tried to save face at the united nations ever since documents released by edward snowden revealed rampant spying on foreign diplomats by the national security agency and its partners in fact last october as part of an internal review prompted by the snowden disclosures the white house announced plans to curb its iran's spying activities but new documents released this week by journalist glenn greenwald give more insight into the lengths the n.s.a. went to give u.s. diplomats an advantage at the u.n. are to some sachs has more implicated in the latest n.s.a. document released to susan rice president obama's national security adviser back in two thousand and ten she was the ambassador to the united nations trying to secure passage of a new iran sanctions resolution in the u.n. security council as internal n.s.a. documents show she reach out to the spy agency requesting intelligence on certain u.n. security council members so that she could develop a strategy in

a series of blarney team moved into action and working with partner telecoms secure new intelligence orders against security council members to bone uganda nigeria in bosnia a different document shows that in the run up to the iran sanctions vote usa was also spying on france japan mexico and brazil all security council members as well eventually the white house got their iran sanctions resolution through the security council and told to vote and the n.s.a. praised itself noting intelligence was key in keeping u.s. diplomats informed of how others on the u.n. security council would vote and all the n.s.a. spy tools were trained primarily on nonpermanent members of the un security council the purpose of the spying was actually to gain intelligence on the permanent members of the security council china the u.k. russia and france. u.s. diplomats told the n.s.a. that intelligence quote helps them know when other permanent representatives were telling the truth revealed their real position on sanctions gave us an upper hand in negotiations and provided information on various countries redlines now spying

on the un is nothing new with you it's revealed in two thousand and ten that u.s. diplomats were instructed to spy on u.n. leaders and other un members including the u.k. israel even cyprus and morocco have been accused of committing espionage against the u.n. after all it's the prime target to extract useful diplomatic intelligence and one could argue that diplomatic leadership is one of the few legitimate spy targets as opposed to entire populations unfortunately for the united states they got caught not just spying on adversarial nations they would expect such spying but spying on friendly nations as well in washington d.c. sam sacks are to you may not realize it but you may have a right to be forgotten according to the top european court that is fair to say our first tells us how one man from spain angry at being unable to delete an auction notice on his property which was found online be to google in the personal

information game. well the european court of justice that's there to interpret the law has handed down a somewhat surprising to some ruling now spaniard maria castaic gonzalez has complained that when you searched for his name online you discover an article from more than a decade ago that mentioned that his home had been repossessed now he was annoyed that this embarrassing part of his past was still available online and he wanted that listing in the search engine to be removed and the court ruled that search engines must listen to people when they complain about what their searches turn up and in some cases comply with the request to have that personal information removed from the search results and now there was the exception if the data concerns people who are in the public eye or public interest information good news for the european

commission because they've been pushing the new data protection rules that would give people this so-called right to be forgotten now google has said that this is a disappointing ruling for search engines and online publishes in general and they're going to be analyzing the implications now there are concerns that this could open the floodgates to countless requests for information to be removed from search engine listings before all of us either googled and fell's and everyone knows that they did it and perhaps see something that they don't like it's certainly going to have implications perhaps pushing the power back into people's own hands about what people potentially can find out about xi and potentially giving people much more control about what people can search in the future so it's going to be interesting implications or and i think to see how this one plays out. that was our two correspondents are far from london. and back in the united states

democratic senator al franken of minnesota is voicing concerns about technology and privacy is questioning the security of the new samsung galaxy s five which lets people use their fingerprints to access the phone's functions including making payments your fingerprint becomes your password but passwords are supposed to be secret right well as the senator from minnesota pointed out in a letter to samsung fingerprints are the the opposite of secret you leave them on countless objects that you touch throughout the day he says your car door a glass of water even the screen of your smartphone if hackers get hold of a digital copy of your fingerprint they could use it to impersonate you for the rest of your life particularly as more and more technology start relying on fingerprint authentication. said cation excuse me and the letter franken listed thirteen questions security questions about the technology and requested a response from the company within the month last year's i phone five s. as touch id technology the feature was hacked by researchers just days after its

release using a fingerprint lifted from a touchscreen franken had asked similar questions of apple regarding touch id though franken said samsung's technology appeared to raise even more security questions for example the i phone required a password after five failed fingerprint attempts but the samsung allows unlimited attempts given potential identity thieves plenty of tries the i phone technology was also limited to a few applications a fingerprint on samsung's phone allows access to the entire mobile device. but with the world cup a little under a month away the citizens of brazil are feeling the pinch as rental prices skyrocket in the run up to the games in sao paulo locals have moved into the empty lot near the four hundred forty five million dollar gleaming new football stadium settling in with plastic tents and calling the site the people's cup the protest settlement has drawn thousands and prompted a visit by brazilian president dilma rousseff to address this issue joining me for

more on this is freelance journalist ben tavenner thank you so much for joining me on this now it's quite a sight to see this gleaming new stadium right next to an encampment of people living in these plastic tents what do they say they want from the government. might be four kilometers from the stadium but when i went to the camp last week. in their mind they may as well be coming right outside the front door because they feel that the world cup and the speculation that come along with us has just driven up prices to such an extent in the surrounding for neighborhoods that they just can't afford to live in apartments around there anymore because rents aren't that expensive in the in the east part of the city it's not the center it's not exactly one of the most glamorous parts of the city but now they've got as you say a million dollar many million dollar stadium right next door to it you know the prices have gone up some people say the rent is actually traveled and that's meant that some to two thousand five hundred families have now made their way to this

occupation encampment some four kilometers away from the stadium but the stadium is within view of the camp and they are remote they are reminded every every every day every member of the day that they are there because of the world cup what they want from the government is health basically they don't want free how this they told me they said that they want to be able to pay at least something towards new apartment they don't mind where it is they can be on that plot of land or it could be somewhere else or they'd like is the government to stump up some money and help them with subs that i founded housing now this protest that referred to as as a people kept its ground and there's a lot of protests going on over the entire nation about issues related to the sorts of things president rousseff is supposed to be dropping by tomorrow what are people expecting her to do. well she's being slightly willing in the parks to engage with people including the the homeless because movement being common but she met with

the leader last week. that suspended to some extent some of the protest but another week has now gone by tomorrow we're expecting at least six and will tiniest . protest in some pollo as many as fifty across the country and some of the fifteen around the world including places like germany so that very much hoping that she will reengage with the movement she has said and she stressed that the government has got housing programs up and running she said that just in some part of a hundred thousand people are registered on on housing programs but of course there's no magic wand and these people are going to have to register and wait that turn she's been fed before the same time she has tried to meet them somewhere near the middle. now protests as you've said are going to going to be taking place across the country to miles but people are taking to the streets brazil numerous times in recent months about this do you think that the world cup is offering them

the sort of world stage to air their grievances on this or if they didn't have the sort of world stage when these protests really be going on. well brazil is a country that like the protests there are protests happening every day not just protests we have a lot of strikes going on teachers are on strike today we saw five to seven thousand teachers out in the middle of some power yesterday rio has been paralyzed for a second day today and of course why that the reason that are happening now is because they have this leverage which is given by the fact of the wild soffits here starting in on the thirty days in the full see the glare of the world's media is there for the stage but i do think they will be out in process anyway but of course it's probably drive more people on the streets knowing that knowing that the media savvy having said that we're not seeing the kind of protest we saw last year during the considerations comes during in june two thousand and thirteen last year when we saw up to a million people in over three hundred cities across brazil we're not talking about

the last the last protest in some part of for example which was dedicated as an anti world cup protests or only around a hundred thousand people as a hardcore of a hard core group of people that still want protests and i'm sure the numbers could grow as we as we head towards the world cup which is no show but don't think will sense how awesome is it for argument's sake is it fair to blame the world cup or is this more of a brazilian government problem that was there long before fee for granted the world cup to that country. probably a question to address to the brazilians but they are undoubtedly blaming the government government more than fifty five fifty becomes the target when it turns around and criticizes brazil when it turns around and says look you're doing well enough because the brazilians are very very well aware of how much money is going into this whether it's in the form of government money. loans or you know some people think the money is just going to go and be forgotten about when thief of

course granted brazil the world cup the country was edging its way towards an economic boom in two thousand and ten the country the country saw g.d.p. growth of seven point five percent so it was a different time then. but the government here now has a very difficult task ahead because. a lot of these protests aunt just level three for the time most of them are level the president jim of the saffi at her party p.t. and the government at large and say they've got this part right now because they put general elections coming up in october and we still we still have to see whether they're going to even try and use the world cup in a yanik like there was already late especially with the accusations of corruption and mismanagement and things like that it'll be interesting to see how this plays out especially the thousand elections coming up thank you very much for joining me freelance journalist than tavenner. in february we reported on

a radiation leak at the waste isolation plant in carlsbad new mexico twenty one workers were contaminated with low levels of radiation officials now believe the leak may have been caused by a type of kitty litter use to mix with talks since a scientist who used to work at the facility told the associated press he believes the change from non-organic organic to organic kitty litter back in two thousand and ten is what may have caused a reaction inside the way strong kitty litter is used to absorb any liquid before the drums of waste are sealed and shipped to the dump these scientists believe the organic litter had a reaction with the toxins inside the drums causing then the radiation to leak through the facility is the federal government's only permanent repository for waste from decades of building nuclear bombs from los alamos national laboratories and other federal facilities who knew kitty litter had so much power kind of scary that does it for now i'm lindsey france stay tuned boom bust is coming up next.

placed specific goals the try to. play polo going to be good news for you. for the story taking every minute. mummie no law no a. mile or less like the payment. was the thing that's setting all time place cases most elite moment slaves sometimes for nothing which lead to so we have. to look just a few but still we can still be just if you see

a stage eight look to be. the teacher was. playing. a chance for some. place such as the finish line a marathon. at. the end but. in the wake of referenda demanding self-determination ukraine as a sovereign state continues down the path of disintegration the western backed regime in kiev is adamant it will not talk to so-called terrorists meanwhile protesters in the east and south of ukraine are voting with their feet.

i marinate this is a boom bust and these are the stories that we're tracking for you today. ron paul is on the program today now the former congressman and three time presidential candidate sat down with watt to discuss u.s. foreign and domestic policy and you definitely don't want to miss what he had to say and hedge fund titans are going up against a pretty powerful institution the u.s. government or the powerful now several big hedge funds are suing the government for taking too much of the profits from fannie and freddie the government dropped the ball somewhere are these billionaires just being vulture it turns into a little bit about we'll look into it coming right up then in today's big deal edward harris and i are discussing a big big payday and switzerland you won't want to miss

a moment and all starts right now. today we're looking at ethics now most of business television shows don't spend a lot of time talking about business ethics but we aren't most business t.v. shows so what prompted us to address this very subject. fannie mae and freddie mac. yeah ethics and fannie mae and freddie mac. last summer a lawsuit was filed by perry capital and several other hedge funds which argues that the government is taking too much of the profits from fannie and freddie perry and other funds own preferred shares in the companies that they believe are worth not so small fortunes if only the government would stop holding all the profits now

let me start back in the beginning back in two thousand and eight fannie and freddie were bailed out by the u.s. government they were two of the biggest and earliest bailouts of the financial crisis hank paulson the treasury secretary at the time place the companies into conservatories shift and provided them with hundreds of billions of dollars in backstop financing there was one catch though the government never wiped out the existing common or preferred shares because doing so would have bankrupt bankrupted some major midsize american banks which have been encouraged by regulators to use the preferred stock as bank capital cities now chemistry under council structure rules would dictate that the common preferred shares should have should have been wiped out but the government didn't want to do that and hedge funds piled in thinking that these things had huge optionality values and they were right now once the conservatorship and now once in conservatorship the government required and fred to issue super preferred stock to the treasury department stock which they do

which they wouldn't repaid to the government before all other creditors at a rate of ten percent so they jumped in the line now what do you know by two thousand and twelve fannie and freddie started accounting huge huge gains accounting gains now with the crisis behind it the government decided the common preferred stock should be worth zero and all dividends should go directly to the treasury no stops along the way common in preferred stock holders would receive nothing that of course didn't sit too well with the hedge funds and they sued now why i think these funds are vultures and investors like warren buffett right there on your screen wouldn't be caught dead participating in the shares i do understand however that the hedge funds are within their legal right to do this but that doesn't make it ok. now with that said when it comes to ethics who really is to blame here the government shouldn't have allowed the purchase of these common preferred shares in the first place and had the elected officials done the right

thing six years ago they wouldn't have found themselves in the legal battle they are in today with the very guys that done their campaigns you don't want to be fighting with them or write you a check now the government didn't want to buy the build in two thousand and eight and wiped out the shares all together and they're now suffering the consequences of those actions they wanted to save certain institutions and because of that political desire they now find themselves in quite a bit of a predicament report just so. dr ron paul is a former congressman and a three time presidential candidate paul has spent his career in public service pushing for freedom and liberty both domestically and abroad now he's a prominent libertarian in american politics who's advocated for free markets liberty and non interventionism throughout his life i sat down with dr paul to get

his take on the u.s. foreign and domestic policy and i first asked him to explain what concerns he has about america's involvement in ukraine take a look. there are several first is i don't like our government getting involved in the affairs of other people and leading only to trouble fall to the admonition of our early founders of the country that we should be involved in the entangling alliances throughout the world nor in the internal affairs of other nations so whether it's the middle east northern africa or whether it's ukraine i apply that principle so i do not believe it's to our benefit i don't hell i don't think it helps our national security i think it hurts our national security i don't think it helps in this particular instance the ukrainian people so i think it would be best for everybody for us to just stay out besides we don't have the money we have to go borrow the money if we decide and we're already spending money on this effort in ukraine and i don't think we should be doing that. dr paul i take it you believe

the money spent by the u.s. abroad would be better used to shore up our finances here at home now in your view what role does the u.s. government have in terms of projection of power or is a global super cop. well it's mainly to develop friendly relations with as many people who are that are open to it i was delighted with the collapse of the soviet system and i have been delighted with our efforts to end a lot of trade going on with not only the former communist nation of china. also with russia we've invested five hundred billion dollars in russia and they've invested four hundred billion dollars outside so there's a lot of trade going on to sort of defies the side dhea that a few people are stirring up enough trouble where they want to ruin all that so my effort in the world is to promote trade and promote friendship promote travel at

the same time not be involved in trying to determine what's best for other people i don't want to do that individual lives and i don't want to do that for other governments and other peoples in spite of the many many problems out there it's just impossible for us to do it if we don't have the authority and we're not going to be welcome and we don't have the wisdom to do it if things are to be done to help people who are in trouble overseas it should be done from our viewpoint of liberty it should be done voluntarily and the american people generally have been very very generous in helping people when they're in trouble but i want to i want our government our people to stay out of the affairs especially when they come to violence and and militarism now some people believe that u.s. political and military involvement in places like iraq afghanistan libya and ukraine is a big basically to maintain u.s. global wealth by maintaining us global gemini what's your view on the on the subject. well i think there's a lot today and i think

a lot of countries you know are interested i think whether it's russia or china when they invest overseas that goal may be the same and america's goal used to be that we were much more designed to have a global presence by trading and investments and you know having friendly relations but no i think now we have fallen into the trap of saying well there's some that was in the whole reason that we went into the middle east oil was an issue there were other issues as well but china and other countries are investing overseas and they're investing in oil and different things and and right now we're giving russia tremendous incentive to go in do deals with more with china and india and these other countries where if the market was working we might be able to better provide these trade agreements that and then when when when we give them

trouble and people resist what we do is do so that's why i don't think it's in our best interest now inside the u.s. we have a policy whereby the n.s.a. collects data on u.s. citizens and mouth allegedly to mine data in order to deter future terrorist attacks now are you concerned about this data collection and its impact on u.s. citizens and businesses well i would hope every american is except i do know there are some who i fully don't understand in our congress who say oh no we must do it this is the way we have safety i mean this is more a principle of on the floor a tarion dictatorship that they have to know what everybody is doing no i am a strong advocate of privacy i complain so much because our own government is very very secretive in a free society which we had a much better freer society once before we're supposed to know what the government's doing but now all the efforts in washington seems to be to make government very sick. when we're not allowed to know what's going on if somebody

tells us the truth they're charged with treason instead of looking toward to our constitution the fourth amendment protecting our privacy actually when you have n.s.a. they're doing exactly the opposite so our government and by the permission of the people the people have gone along with this because they have been complacent and think maybe they're going to benefit from this in the wrong people in charge so our government is not acting the way it was intended to and some of us are concerned about it not a fact i'm very optimistic with a lot of young people and there's still a lot of americans who have been complacent but they they don't say oh i want to give up my freedom because government going to take care you care of me quite frankly right now they're starting to realize the government all governments the more authoritarian they are the more inept they are and that's why you see collapses. so many empires around the world and i think right now we're not improving our influence in the world actually we're causing more harm to the

american people and i want to tell you about this the united states has about five percent of the global population but thirty five percent of the global wealth and this discrepancy appears to be contract what should the u.s.g. what if anything about that contraction. oh. i don't know what you mean by contraction you mean the thirty five percent is going down yes this is oh well you know it's i i'm not i would measure those statistics i would measure the measurement of freedom a free society that's productive and have property rights and trade they're going to because they produce more they're going to have more wealth that's what a free country does so if there's a discrepancy between the united states and say a country in africa which has no property rights and no freedom and no industrialization what they need is the concept of liberty and free markets and sound money in what property. meaning contract rights mean so you don't want to say

well there's an imbalance in wealth and therefore we have to redistribute wealth that is not the answer to the problem the answer to the problem is how does wealth get created and we used to know how to do this today we think wealth is created by the federal reserve if people come up short of the government to span the people won something or we want to fight a war we don't have the wealth we're not producing so they think wealth comes from the federal reserve in fall asleep to foreign countries around the world so they still take our dollars as learners of foreigners take our dollars we're going to be doing this bad that's going to diminish our wealth so statistically the country is the more wealthy are going to have and they should never be held. down for that they should be criticized for having wealth if they've earned that wealth. time for a very quick break but stick around because when we return we're bringing you part to my interview with ron paul i asked dr paul how free markets would stimulate

a faster american recovery rather than the muddle through economy we have right now then in today's big deal edward harris and i are talking about a new proposed minimum wage in switzerland the u.s. is talking about ten bucks an hour swiss more like fourteen bucks an hour scuse me that's a like twenty four but a bit of money and as we go to break here are a look at some of your closing numbers the bell stick around. and. i would read that as questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on

our t.v. question or. welcome back now post-crisis the american middle class has taken a hit and the american economy is still crawling out from the hole that it fell into and what's the best way to get out now some people argue for government stimulus while others advocate monetary easing in part two of my interview with ron paul we discuss a libertarian perspective of how america might get onto its feet without relying on uncle sam to give it a hand. dr paul in a recent study the world. bank looked at income increases ranked by global income percentiles over the past twenty years and what they found was income rising by as much as eighty percent in some percentiles but stagnation or actual contraction of

incomes for the poorest people those in the seventy fifth the ninetieth percentile globally which also happens to be the middle classes in developed economies like the u.s. now do you think secular stagnation in the us middle class is a real phenomenon i do but i really am very cautious not to join those who say well what we need is more government to do redistribute the wealth and see what capitalism does this is not free market capitalism this is crony capitalism it's collusion of governments and big business which is a philosophy that all governments indorse around the world right now and this is characteristic if you destroy a currency you can expect the middle class to be diminished since we have the reserve currency of the world and we're printing so much money you can expect our middle class to get poorer and poorer and the poor get poorer so much poorer so if you look at this distribution of wealth in this country you cannot blame freedom

for you can't blame free markets where you have to blame these collusion of big government big business and big labor this does not happen when we were a much freer country we had the largest in the richest middle class ever known to man mankind that is what we need fortunately not only has america slipped away from this i even think since the collapse of the soviet system there's been too much of an endorsement of this that we need we need government and big business working together and i don't like that because if that gets out of hand to be a benz itself toward more of a fascist system and i don't i don't think that's a good way to go there in your opinion one of the most important factors that can give america the best chance for prosperity in the future. well the best chance is to change people's minds about the necessity to work for a free society and this is the reason i spend so much time with young people and my

message is well received on a college campuses because they're disillusioned they don't they don't buy into this thing the government going to take care of them they've spent tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on education and they're not getting any jobs so they know they can't depend on government they're sick and tired of the wars they think there's something very strange about the federal reserve system and just printing money out of thin air so the future comes from a whole generation of individuals who will become those individuals that will influence in teaching and writing in the media and writing books and doing movies and in the last hundred years the influence has always been with big government that government will take care of us and they believed in k.z. in economics in the united states has in many other countries they haven't been socialist they have been more keynesians where they think that this mixture of big business and big government big labor that will have managers in washington will do it but no we have to get enough people in

a class which is would be called to you know the influential people to understand why it's in everybody's best interest to have a free society rather than dependency on government. dr paul women have credit based currency system so there is no limit to how much credit can be manufactured in such a system but how do we ensure that credit is not mal invested and that we sustain growth based on high return investments to prepare the country for the future it's absolutely impossible if the government still distributing you know that the credit . but in a free market you can make sure that it's not mal investment it always will be there will always be mistakes you know for every hundred businesses get started in a free society you might have ninety five who will fail and you'll say well that was mel invested you know it was but they had they had to suffer the consequences that they didn't anticipate right or made a mistake and if they are successful then they have to be rewarded so it's all

sorted out and that's so much different then when a bureaucrat the size and the politicians decide it and special interest decide it and money money people decided by influencing government that is very bad but mistakes will be made but if you want corrections and you want gross and getting rid of the mistakes immediately when the government passes on the credit what happens on the bubbles are forming the mallet vestments form they're guaranteed in their bail out and it compounds the problem and then when you need a correction you don't get it and that's why the world is becoming mired in an economic difficulty that will not be reversed until a lot more people understand what i'm talking about. do you think the fed's quantitative easing and zero interest rate policy are having a distortionary effect that will lead to mal investment in the u.s. economy oh obviously you know our government now our federal reserve owns one point six trillion dollars of bad debt i mean that can't be helpful and the housing

market is still is in bad shape there's a there's a lot of distortion it's a little bit different in nature because it's sort of some cities are worse than others. malinvestment has just been papered over i just think of the correction that needed to be had a current state of the fed by one point six trillion dollars and a lot of foreigners still owning owning some of our mortgage debt i mean that's if it's bad data needs why don't those businesses need to go out but you don't need female and freddie macin guarantee the guarantees that nobody fails guarantees that the problems will come and the corrections will be very very difficult now you just mentioned real estate and grow i'm glad that you brought that up because transcripts from a two thousand and two f o m c meeting show that the greenspan fed was worried about deflation after the technology bubble burst and that that and the bats was

a key reason for leaving rates so low then now after the housing bubble burst similar figures have popped up in a responsible for the fed's zero rate interest policy today so mike my question is where do you see this ending and your opinion destruction of the dollar and they can't keep doing it greenspan had too low for too long and everybody acknowledged that they thought the correction was to make them even lower actually they're below one percent below zero right now they're negative because they're one percent or so but you have an inflation rate much higher than the governments will ever tell us so you have a negative rate and they even want to legalize they are in me and they a negative rate so if somebody wants to put money in the bank you put in one hundred dollars in a year later you get ninety eight dollars back well that's that's pure theft when it comes to it when. steal wealth that way so no it's going to destroy the dollar and the dollar's pretty vital it's crucial it won't be an easy transition and you're not going to all of a sudden see another another reserve currency pop up and it be

a fish on the market if the market had to choose on this they would pick an asset commodity for money and the one that's been the most popular for six thousand years has been gold and second in places been silver and that would restore the confidence and that's why the richard nations who are in better shape financially like chan and others they're buying gold even india is buying gold so this is. that was former congressman and presidential candidate dr ron paul time now for today's big deal. in today's big deal edward harris and i are discussing a big very big payday in switzerland now a referendum on when may eighteenth might put swiss minimum wage at twenty two francs and. twenty two francs is about one thousand euros in about twenty four to

twenty five u.s. dollars but a nice now now this proposal is made by the swiss federation of trade unions and supported by the socialist and green parties a recent opinion poll found that sixty four percent of voters are against the proposal put referendums have surprising outcomes now cue the arguments about the minimum wage this government argues that it would have it would threaten jobs and make it harder for young people to find a job in the first place now supporters they argue that the wage would help people who work full time live decently and switzerland is of course notoriously an expensive place to live however can you tell me a little bit more about a social and economic position right now and basically what is the unemployment rate in that country if there are coexistence pretty good. in fact it's they have been unemployment in the three to four percent range we have a graph here that shows unemployment been coming down recently and you know the have been doing so well in fact that their currency has been appreciating to the

point where the swiss national bank has had to buy up the currency by a foreign currency in order to stop their currency from appreciating so switzerland's doing pretty well ok you know when i ask you can you tell me more about this minimum wage itself like how did they come up with the number twenty two friends who they came up with in terms of you know the percentage of. of the actual salaries so basically you know four thousand francs a month which would be forty eight thousand francs a year would be about sixty six percent of the median salary within switzerland which would be about ten percent of the people who are actually below that number so that's where the number really comes from. the question of course is that is that a really hot number because when you think about it that's fifty thousand dollars a year as a minimum wage that's a task that's pretty amazing you know switzerland actually has

a pretty high standard of living in norway and switzerland have the highest. standard of living in terms of purchasing power parity they're the most expensive countries so really we're only talking about a minimum wage of fourteen dollars a purchasing power parity basis but nonetheless in nominal terms we're talking fifty thousand bucks and a lot of people who work in switzerland especially in industry actually commute from across the border like in italy a lot of italians were in switzerland or here in geneva even the airport is not running for her france and so it's really going to jump back and forth that would be nice and so if you work in italy you can go work in switzerland make fifty thousand dollars a year and then come back to italy were. or the standard of living where the cost of living is a lot lower that's awesome sounds going to me. here's my follow up with a minimum wage affects switzerland's job market and basically what sectors of the industry are these jobs in kind of that would be affected most by this minimum wage

so we're talking like hotels retail things like that and you know this goes back to what we were talking about a few days ago which is basically that we've done studies in the united states would show when you look at the aggregate studies from nineteen seventy two i think to two thousand and eight basically most of the data shows that minimum wage changes don't have any appreciable impact on employment so if they were to institute this i mean this is a massive hike the question is what kind of impact will we see on the unemployment because obviously you know a company that is employing someone has a small medium sized business and has to have a massive high might go out of business right so when you talk about a hike of this of this magnitude. are you going to get that sort of almost no effect on unemployment that we've seen from studies in the u.s. or is there going to be an impact now edward you know this whole minimum wage thing this is a pretty aggressive way for the government to intervene you know just just make

a flat minimum wage never has to the question is is this appropriate what do you think i think it really has to do with the social values because basically you know the people on the left there the green party and the socialist they really want to have a social safety net which is very. very strict that means that no one can fall through the same time what we're definitely seeing is intervention by government in a way that really. things for specific individual companies and i think that it's that trade off they have to deal with and i think that in the united states we feel called to be with that kind of trade off with middleweights that as well talk about this more it's a fun topic and i really like it but that's all the time we have for now you can see all segments intervention a show on you tube you tube dot com slash boom bust r.t. we also love hearing from you the please check out our facebook page at facebook dot com slash boom bust r.t.

if you can also tweet us at aaron aimed at edward and from all of us here and best thanks for watching we'll see you next time shall. you saw on sunday the effect of what the one year election where the pro-us stare at a prime minister was re-elected and her popularity in the polls went way up as a result of this using this fear of russia to panic the nationalistic parties and that's really the problem how do you get parties for the last twenty years in the baltics for instance to support austerity you say well the alternative is to be pro russian i think it's dish really really important in ukraine because of the long history of antipathy but the pro. progress in separatist progress in terrorists they can't be pro russian if they're russian this is what. i can i like to refer to

them as pro self humans and if they're pro self this morning i'm going to be pro me . i would rather as questions to people in positions of power in. speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question.

coming up on our t.v. in eastern ukraine government forces clash with anti-government activists reports of calm in ukraine military helicopters bearing the united nations insignia the latest on that just ahead. and in the u.s. military there's been a rise in the use of synthetic marijuana for soldiers wanting to avoid drug testing a look at how it could change the nature of treating addiction in the armed forces coming up. and in the run up to the world cup in brazil a group of activists established the people's cup prompting a visit from the country's president more of the movement against the skyrocketing rents which protesters blamed on the world's most watched sporting event later in the show.